Sunday 31 May 2015

The two Andys

Now that the election is but a distant memory, the Andrew Marr Show and The Sunday Politics have lost their lustre. Both now seem directionless. Andrew Marr tries to generate some vitality by punching the air with his good arm, but it’s no good.

I suppose the Labour leadership is vaguely interesting to Labour voters. As I watched Yvette Cooper a huge amount of indifference and gloom descended. She seemed to be saying a whole lot of words and sentences that had no meaning. 



I was trying to read an article in the Times by Tom Holland (£) at the same time, but I did observe that Yvette has got quite a small head and rather large feet. Imagine being married to Ed Balls.

Tom Holland has decided that Islam could be reformed if only Muslims were willing to take the prophet Mohammed’s life story with a pinch of salt, since it was written many years after the event, and its accuracy could not be guaranteed. If only some of those literal interpretations of Mohammed’s more unsavoury lifestyle choices could be ditched, posited Tom wistfully, Islam might actually become worthy of its claim to be a religion of peace. All you need is love.  It seems a bit of a long shot. Good read though.


Anyway, Andrew Neil, everyone’s favourite interviewer, tenacious, sharp and ferocious, lost both his bark and his bite, dammit, at a most inopportune moment. On interviewing George Galloway he  just went all limp. 


I tried to see if I could spot where Galloway’s hat was, to no avail. Someone must have persuaded him to take it off and maybe leave it out of camera shot, which must have taken some coaxing. “Hats off” to whoever managed that. 
As. You know, Galloway wears the hat at all times including in the bedroom. You saw it when he announced, from the end of the bed through the medium of Twitter, that his next project was to be London Mayor.



For some reason Andrew Neil had turned on the saccharine; he and George chatted away amiably about Lutfur Rahman and other matters of interest.  
“You declared Bradford an Israel-free zone” challenged Andrew, smiling with amusement. “Will you be doing the same for London?” he probed in jest.
“No” his chum replied.  “It would certainly be my aim to encourage support for the Palestinians. London has more supporters of Palestinians than any other part of the country” said he, modestly. “Me and Ken Livingstone are exceedingly fond of the religion of peace” he added, or something to that effect.

I wonder if IS would let him wear the hat, should he decide to travel. They’re sharp dressers As. You know.

4 comments:

  1. Great post, Sue, so funny. But why are the BBC still in love with Gorgeous George ?

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    Replies
    1. They really think he's great at speaking truth to power and standing up for working class people. His pose as being nostalgic for the kind of Old Labour so many of the older crowd pine for, combined with his dramatic turns is meat and drink to most Beeboids. They love a good presentation, and if nothing else, Galloway puts on a good show.

      He'll never be off the BBC airwaves.

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  2. "On interviewing George Galloway he just went all limp"

    Maybe tips from Any Marr?: "Just imagine you are outside a club after a gruelling day's editting, and he's a young researcher..."

    Amazing what happens with the BBC that stays at the BBC, and what not.

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  3. Marr clearly felt his job was to give Cooper a platform to present her case for leadership (tossing softballs when he wasn't actually holding the ball for her to kick*), then try to nail her on a gotcha quote attacking Liz Kendall and stir up a little something they can repeat on the News later on. Seems to be the only point of his entire show, really.

    * apologies for the mixed metaphor

    Andrew Neil needs to do a Tommy Robinson on Galloway. Very disappointing.

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